“You made me wait ten minutes/before drinking again/but by then/the whipped cream hat had melted/and the sugar was clumped/at the bottom of the mug.” Reading from the poem “Hot Coffee” by Emily Dehr, I feel the cold caffeinated drink slide down my throat. It settles in the pit of my stomach, bittersweet, and I long for more.
       ‘“Drink up,” you said,/“it’s a $5.00 cup.”’ Emily illustrates the hypocrisy of her extended metaphor skillfully. Her company forces her to wait for the coffee to cool off when it burns her tongue, then demands she drink it when it’s chilled. With vivid descriptions and contrast from the shock of heat to coldness, she captures deep meaning in each word. Emily uses the expensive Starbucks coffee to connect to the pressures of stereotypes teens feel today; the conformities we wonder the meaning of yet succumb to.Well done!